'World's strongest beer' must change marketing: ASA

Scottish brewer Brewmeister has been banned from marketing its 67.5% abv Snake Venom as the world’s strongest beer.

The Advertising Standards Authority said details of the brew on Brewmeister’s website were misleading about its alcohol content, and focused too much on the beer’s strength as a selling point.

The ASA said: “The claims ‘the world’s strongest beer’ and ‘say goodbye to boring beer’ placed an undue emphasis on the product’s high alcoholic strength and implied the product was preferable because of its alcohol content.

“The claims ‘contains special ingredients to achieve such a high volume of alcohol’, ‘the alcohol is very strong but the beer still tastes like a beer rather than a spirit’ and ‘Snake Venom is so strong that we have put a warning label on the neck of the bottle warning drinkers to beware’ contributed to the overall impression that the product might be preferred because of its claimed alcohol content or intoxicating effect.”

It also said the information did not make it clear that the beer had gone through processes other than those used in standard beer brewing to bring its alcohol content up.

Brewmeister noted that the bottle carried a warning label saying: “This beer is strong, do not consume more than 35ml in one sitting,” and said it was promoting a high-quality drink that should be drunk in smaller quantities than standard beer.

Snake Venom is made from smoked peat malt and uses two types of yeast – beer and Champagne. It costs £50 per 27.5cl bottle.

Site Search

Newsletter

COMMENT

The reasons Donald Trump should not be left in charge of a shopping trolley, let alone the keys to the White House, are plentiful and well-documented – from his use of the word “bigly” and lamentable business legacy to his dubious post-modern feminist principles, quite astonishing lack of political acumen and, most worrying of all, his bewildering hair.